


Damaged

by Sweet Jekyll (VictoryanBladeFair)



Category: EXO (Band), NCT (Band), Power - EXO (Music Video)
Genre: 18+, Action, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alien AU, Alien Planet, Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Blood, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, EXO Planet (EXO), EXO Planet AU, Eventual Smut, F/M, Futuristic, Human Experimentation, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Matter of Life and Death, Mentions of Death, Military, Military Science Fiction, Music Video: Lucky One (EXO), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Sci-Fi, Sci-Fi AU, Science, Science Experiments, Science Fiction, Shameless Smut, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Smut, Torture, Violence, Will add characters as I go, cursing, lucky one au, mature - Freeform, mature language, parental loss, power au, toxic parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:40:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24951730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VictoryanBladeFair/pseuds/Sweet%20Jekyll
Summary: You never thought to ever go back to your home planet, at least not after you were forced to leave. Your mother decided it was enough at some point during your childhood, she couldn’t bare to live with a man who was never home with his family, it was always “work first”, she brought herself to believe he never loved her or his child; so she packed your things and together you left Exo Planet and moved to Neo Zone, a neighbouring planet, far away from your father. You missed him and you couldn’t deny that, but you never once traveled back to see him, he only ever visited you without your mother knowing, every year or so. Yet, it was because of him that you were called to go back, youneededto move back and take his place… His tragic death stirred something inside of you, a need for answers and revenge that couldn’t be stopped.
Relationships: Oh Sehun/Reader, Suh Youngho | Johnny/Reader
Kudos: 6





	1. Prologue

_Location: Exo Planet, outside of Elyxion City_

Sehun's obsidian eyes lazily gazed at the night sky littered with stars, two of the four moons orbiting Exo Planet were visible like shiny dots reflecting the light of the sun. One of the celestial satellites appeared bigger than its fellow one as it was closer to the planet's gravitational field, orbiting faster than the planet rotates.

He just laid there on the dry ground emotionless with his head resting on top of his bent up arms. He was tired both physically and emotionally; something heavy weighed on his heart, an ache that felt like a fresh cut each time his mind brought him back to the events of a few days ago. He let out a long sigh as his eyelids fluttered closed for a moment, feeling as if the moons were judging him so he stopped staring at them. _A mistake_. As soon as he closed his eyes he was back on the field.

_He felt the air still, dread crawled up his spine as his eyes turned towards the spacecraft. It took only a blink of an eye before he sprinted in the vehicle's direction, yet no matter how fast everything happened that day, he kept on reliving it all in slow-motion. There was a strong explosion before he could reach the spacecraft and Sehun was sent flying back from the gust of wind, mixed with flames and debris, his back hit the ground as he struggled to breathe in the air that had been knocked out of his lungs from the collision. The screams were distant, barely audible, but they were still there and full of fear and pain._

Sehun inhaled sharply as he shot his eyes wide open while bringing his right arm in front of him to inspect it; it felt like the skin was burning yet nothing was there, he could almost smell in the air the scent of burnt flesh, he could almost taste blood on his tongue, he could almost feel again the pain he felt that day. _Almost_ , yet those were just memories in his mind now, there was no trace of what he went through on his skin, it was immaculate as Yixing healed him as soon as he was brought to safety by Junmyeon and Chanyeol.

Sehun's pupils looked past his fingers as the closest moon to the planet had completely obscured the second one, he immediately sat up on the hard ground and looked down the canyon. Crystals started glowing brighter from cracks in the rocks with magenta, blue and yellow hues. He kept his eyes trained on the bottom of the gorge, irises lighting up in expectation as the Tree of Life began glowing as well, its long branches swayed softly, rustling the green leaves till the faint sound reached Sehun's ears. No matter how many times he's seen it, the scenery was still breathtaking. The strong glowing colors of the Exolite crystals subsided after a few short minutes as the closest moon revealed her satellite sister behind her.

A barely perceptible movement in the air alerted Sehun of someone else's presence in his proximity, had it not been for his heightened senses he wouldn't have became aware of the shift in the space behind him, a sense of familiarity washing over him as he grew tired of avoiding everyone and spending time on his own. "What are you doing here?" He asked without even looking at the person.

Jongin huffed as he walked towards his friend and gave him a nudge on the head slightly annoyed, yet once he sat down cross legged next to Sehun, the latter could tell there was worry in his expression. "What am _I_ doing here?" Jongin leaned back on the palms of his hands, then let out a 'tsk' before he continued, "What are _you_ doing here? We're all worried about you. It's been a few days since-"

"I know," he deadpanned, not giving Jongin any time to finish what he was going to say, but Sehun knew very well what it was about. "I... I needed my own time to process, that's it." The low tone let his friend know that he wasn't going to talk about the matter any further, not unless he was ready and wanted to do it, although he would usually go to Junmyeon about his deepest concerns.

Letting silence grow between them after the short exchange of words, Jongin let his eyes wander before him down the gorge as they were sitting on the highest point on top of the canyon. The soft colorful hues of the crystals, which blended together to create secondary colors in certain sports, were like a mesmerizing painting one could get lost into if they admired them for too long. He knew that was one of the reasons why Sehun loved coming here whenever he wanted to let his mind work out his thoughts.

A small oval-shaped sentinel droid flew by and beeped as its sensors picked up onto the presence of two people in the area, then quickly flew towards them. The two paid the machine no attention as they were already used to it, it only took a moment for the droid to scan their faces and search them up in the database, getting a green light of no trespassers and then left to continue patrolling.

Tourists from other planets were not allowed to visit or sightsee there, as much as the arid canyon was one of the main attractions because of its unique crystal abilities, some people craved to obtain even just a small branch from the Tree of Life, believing it to be the main source of power of Exo Planet's inhabitants. Aeris were one of the strongest alien species in the universe, as far as common knowledge went, yet very few Aeris were said to have been ' _gifted_ ' by the Tree of Life with _special_ abilities to protect the planet and keep its natural elements balanced. The powers derived from the tree were inexplicable by natural laws, those psychic abilities allowed a person to influence a physical system without any physical interaction whatsoever... No one knew how old was the tree or why it grew in the middle of the hard rocks seemingly without even a source of water to sustain it.

Jongin and Sehun were two of the few people with the unique psychokinetic abilities, which at times they thought of them as a curse rather than a gift. They never asked to be separated from their families and dragged across the globe to be trained and become soldiers, although everyone preferred to call them Guardians of the Tree of Life, the _chosen ones_. But was it truly some mystical power bestowed upon them by the tree or was it simple genetics derived from evolution? Nobody knew and they preferred to leave it that way.

A sudden sigh broke the silence and Jongin's eyes were drawn to Sehun. "We should go."

Jongin nodded in agreement as he began standing up, following his friend. "I heard we're getting a visit tomorrow at the base."

"Huh?" Sehun's eyebrows quirked in confusion. "Since when did we ever get visits at the base?" Yet his question was left unanswered as Jongin shrugged his shoulders.

* * *

_Location: Neo Zone, somewhere in Neo City_

Neo City was Neo Zone’s most relevant megalopolis on the planet, the capital was rich with the most diverse alien species living in tall concrete skyscrapers, as the inhabitants used to say ‘ _so tall they could almost tickle the sky_ ’. Sun-rays barely reached the bottom of the buildings, even during the day the streets were lit up by artificial lights, down there the air was so polluted that only those who could afford a small bedroom lived in the bottom apartments. It wasn’t at all bad in the original city district, but the living conditions did get progressively worse the further the megalopolis expanded from the center.

Southwest to the main city area, artificial neon lights coming from the tall buildings illuminated the narrow streets, although it was quite late in the night, the alleyways were still buzzing with life. People still roamed the streets chatting with glee, aromas of freshly cooked delicacies filled the air and drew in new customers to the local restaurants; there was laughter and singing in a few corners, intoxicated men and women swayed their bodies in front of the bars that offered the cheapest booze even the poorest ones could afford. A cacophony of deafening songs could easily disorient any fogged up mind looking for entertainment, especially in _Mad City_ , notoriously known for its illegal nightlife and underground activities.

" _Do you have eyes on the target?_ " You heard Taeyong's voice come through the earpiece in your right ear. With eyes trained on a man a good ten meters ahead of you, you swiftly walked through the crowd, blending in with the locals.

“Yes.” Came your brief answer. The man came to an abrupt stop and looked around him, he was probably in his forties, tall, brown hair and beard framing his scowling face. He appeared to be definitely more lucid than the people around you and, as his eyes scanned behind him, you lowered your head hiding your eyes under your black hoodie, then pretended to look at random trinkets on a street vendor’s table.

“Special offer tonight for you, lady, buy three and pay only 2!” The street vendor spoke to you in a loud raspy tone, too many cigarettes made his breath so disgusting you scrunched your nose and shook your head. “Then get the hell away from my merchandise, you punk!”

You scoffed and looked back to your man, gasping as he was nowhere in sight anymore. “Fuck,” you hissed and began walking towards the place you last saw him, mad at yourself for letting him get away. “I lost him,” you said to the air, the people around you barely acknowledged you as they walked past you, let alone did they think you were crazy for talking to yourself in their intoxicated state. At an intersection, you let out a sigh through your nostrils as you debated which way the man could have gone.

“ _You cannot let him get away, this is the first lead we’ve had in months,_ ” Taeyong reminded you through the other side of the line. “ _If we can’t catch him now, our opportunity window will close for who knows how long until our next one_.”

“ _Take your right._ ” Another male voice came through the earpiece, speaking fast _, “The areas on your left and in front have a denser populated activity. I’ve redirected Yuta and Jaehyun to your location.”_

“Mark, you know I trust you, but if he went any of the opposite ways—“ You started in the direction Mark told you, quickening your pace but still keeping a watchful eye on the people around you, getting fewer as you followed the alleyway and taking right and left turns.

“ _If he went on the opposite sides, the other guys will take care of him._ ” Taeyong interjected.

You heard voices and halted your steps, holding in your breath as you flattened your back against the cold concrete of the wall on your left. You stretched your ear and listened, trying to make out what they were saying, and judging by the hushed way some of them argued, you counted at least 4 men. You could take them by yourself, but your main priority was only one of the, and you couldn’t let him escape.

There was no time to waste, you could tell they were about to leave. You whispered as you tapped on the earpiece to send your current location to your teammates for backup. “Engaging in three, two, one—“ You took a deep breath and sprinted around the corned taking the men by surprise. In a swift motion, you used the walls as support and jumped from one side to the other, landing on one of the men you quickly rendered him unconscious by banging his head to the side against the concrete. As soon as the other three realized what was happening, two of them attempted to stop you meanwhile the third, the one you’ve been tailing for weeks now, ran away in the opposite direction. “Target’s on the move!” You yelled immediately receiving a response from Jaehyun that him and Yuta were going to catch up with him on the other side.

One of the men pushed you against the wall and you groaned, but quickly dodged an incoming fist to your face as you ducked and he hit the wall instead, wailing in pain. You grabbed him by the same wrist he was clutching in pain and tugged him towards you once you noticed the other man had his laser gun out and attempted to shoot you, instead hitting his friend. Since you had nothing to defend yourself with but your hands, you pushed the now limp body towards the man with the gun, which missed him but it was enough of a distraction for you to leap once more and push him against one of the walls. For a brief moment he was surprised of your strength as you managed to keep his back glued to the cold surface with your right palm on his throat while the left hand banged his right one to loosen the grip of his fingers from the handle of the gun. Two laser beams shot from the tip and hit the ground before his fingers finally gave out from the pain. He roared in anger as he swung a closed fist with his free hand to your side, knocking the air out of you, your grip loosened and he pushed you away from him, delivering one more closed fist with his opposite to your face.

Your left side stung momentarily but you did not lose your balance as you turned your eyes back on him. You were _pissed_. “This is not the way I wanted my night to go.” He scowled and gritted his teeth, ready to charge again, but you were tired of wasting time with these goons while your main target was probably far gone now if Jaehyung and Yuta didn’t manage to track him and capture him. As he directed the same fist to your face you caught his wrist in midair and he gasped, again unable to process just how _strong_ you actually were. You effortlessly twisted his arm and raised your leg before kicking one of his knees, effectively breaking it. He screamed and wailed in pain as you let him drop to the ground and picked up his gun, pointing it towards him.

“Ronan,” you incited him to speak as you pressed the end on the gun barrel to his forehead, “he organised a shipment. When a where will it happen?” His sobs quieted down, although he was still crying. It wasn’t like you were going to shoot him, but he didn’t have to know.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he spat out as he impulsively shifted his whole body on the ground, away from the weapon.

“You met in a dark alley in the middle of the night.” You almost mocked him, “Now speak cause I won’t repeat myself again. The shipment, _when_ and _where_.” You curled your finger more around the trigger and he whimpered, raising his arms up in defeat.

“Alright, alright, I’ll tell you.” He let out a shaky breath and you nodded for him to continue. “The port, in an hour from now.”

You furrowed your brows in confusion. “The port? There’s no way Ronan’s going to do it in such a secured location, there are Neo Guards everywhere controlling everything that comes in and goes out.” 

“Not that port…” He smirked at knowing something that you didn’t. There were too many illegal landing ports in Neo City, there was no time to go on a wild hunt for a needle in a haystack while the clock was ticking.  
  
You grew impatient and struck him on the face with the handle of the weapon, making him fall flat on the ground. “Tell me where and what’s inside.” You insisted again, but were quickly dumbfounded when he started laughing despite the pain his body was going through.

“You don’t even know what’s inside…” He snickered with pleasure. “You Neo Culture Techs don’t even know who or what’s behind all of this.” They knew who you worked for, there was no way to tell how the information leaked, but they _knew_.

You lowered the gun and sighed, then reached up to softly press one of your fingers on your earpiece. “Squad Leader, we need to find the closest landing port in Mad City, one of the goons here said the spacecraft is going to depart in less than an hour.” You said as you pressed the sole of your left boot on his right leg, above the knee, which made him his and thrash in pain.

“ _Copy that. At least that’s something._ ” Taeyong sighed and you could tell he had bad news to give you. “ _Yuta and Jaehyun lost Ronan in the streets. Our only bet is the port now._ ” You felt your head nodding slowly to his words although it wasn’t like he could see your displeased reaction. _“Stand by, they’re headed your way to help you._ ”

“You should focus on finding the port, I’ll try and get more information—“ You cut off yourself as you looked down at the man and saw his face turn red all of a sudden, before his body began convulsing. Another groan caught your attention and you turned your eyes back down the way you came from; the first man you disabled began convulsing as well. “Something’s happening to them, they’re choking!” You quickly got down on your knees to the man closer to you and dropped the gun down before helping him roll on his side to help him breathe, but everything happened so fast that they stopped moving after a couple of second.

You heard footsteps behind you and turned to see Yuta and Jaehyun making their way towards you. “Are you alright?” Yuta asked you as both of them tried to regain their breaths. “What happened here?”

“They… died.” You whispered utterly shocked. You stood up, unable to say anything else as you looked at your teammates with concern.

Jaehyun looked around for a moment, there were no cameras around here, had they been, Mark and Taeyong would’ve known already, then his eyes fixed on the bodies. He moved to crouch where you had been standing and reached with his hands to tap the man’s clothes; when he found something, he stood up and showed it to us. “A holopad,” he tapped the dark rectangular screen but the object didn’t light up, instead a barely perceptible scent of smoke reached everyone’s nostrils. “They were being surveilled. Whoever is behind this, they hit the kill switch.”

* * *

It was way past the hour mark, the man you and your unit had been chasing for months, Ronan, was gone and along with it the chance to get the spacecraft since they were both gone from Neo City now without any trace. You sighed out of disappointment and frustration, your eyes were looking outside of the window wall, you were so high up in the sky and close to the raging clouds that they felt like a physical extension of your feelings mixed together. Lightning exploded in the sky and illuminated the dark room you were in, unmoving from your seat on the bed even when violent thundering made the window walls vibrate, the rain began falling faster and harder.

Knocking sounds coming from your apartment’s front door reached your ears. You glanced at the green numbers on your nightstand lazily before standing up and heading into the living room, the light automatically switched on with a gradual glow until it was fully lit; there was only one person who would come to you in the middle of the night, but when you opened the front door, you did not expect to see Taeyong instead of Johnny.

“Hey,” you greeted while noticing that he was still wearing the black NCT uniform, which meant he was still working. He nodded back a greeting and you stepped away from the door to let him inside. He probably came to talk about the failed mission, and you were already anticipating a scolding for not prioritising going after the main target. “Found anything from the holopad we brought in?” You hoped there would at least be a chance to a small lead.

Taeyong shook his head, blonde bangs swaying softly at the motion as your last piece of hope was washed away. “No, it was completely useless unfortunately, the internal components were all melted and Mark wasn’t able to salvage any data.”

You nodded in understanding and crossed your arms as you looked at the stark floor, the marbles in your brain rolling fast with all sorts of things you wanted to say and, before you could stop yourself, you were already apologising to your team leader. “Taeyong, I’m sorry, I should’ve went after him—“

“Don’t be ridiculous, Y/n,” he quickly stopped your attempt to blame yourself, “you were in a three on one situation, not to mention one of them was armed.” He eyed the faint purple spot on your left cheekbone. “We knew he was going to meet a source, but I underestimated their level of threat and sent you in alone. I should’ve told the other guys to stick closer.”

“Come one now, I know you’re just trying to make me feel better about it.” you scoffed slightly annoyed. You headed to the kitchen counter and poured yourself a glass of water, taking a long sip. “I took on way more guys than the three in that alley, it’s part of the job. We all knew the risks when we signed up for the Neo Culture Technology program, and there are _consequences_ for failing missions.” It wasn’t like Taeyong didn’t know the risks of the job and the duties, yet he stood there quiet with his arms folded as you blamed yourself unnecessarily. “Isn’t that what you’re here for, squad leader?”

Taeyong heard the shift in your tone, sad as you drew your eyebrows together expecting to hear bad news from the higher ups in the headquarters. He sighed as he lowered his gaze, he closed his eyes for a brief moment and shook his head. “The council decided to not suspend you, Jaehyun and Yuta. Despite having lost the prime target of the mission, there aren’t enough reasons to suspend you from field work.”

“I understand…” You nodded, yet there wasn’t any sign of relief in your expression.

“But…” Your eyes immediately moved from the glass of water on the countertop onto Taeyong’s uncertain voice. “That isn’t the reason why I came here.” A long pause went by between you as he didn’t know how to say what he needed to, he never expected to be the bearer of such unfortunate news. “It’s about your _father_.”

* * *

You had no idea what time it was when you reached your mother’s place, and frankly, you couldn’t care less. You traveled an hour on the railway from your dorms, it was one of the fastest means of public transportation from one point of the unresting megalopolis to another; suspended above ground, it was raised on many different levels and ran among the _megatall_ skyscrapers, even through most of them where the space was needed.

The time you spent on the ride gave you space to process what Taeyong told you about your father. You didn’t cry, at least not right away, you were quick to accept the truth considering the nature of your father’s job, but it _angered_ you. Yes, it hurt you so much and saddened you, yet his death angered you even more than you wanted to admit to yourself. Your resentment was growing and by the time you stepped out of the train, your red eyes were burning from lack of moisture as you had been silently crying on the ride, the sleeves of your black sweatshirt were damp from the furious wiping of tears. 

Your mother lived close to the ground in an old beat up hole that couldn’t even be considered a proper apartment. The stench of the piles of garbage in the streets that reached your nostrils made your expression slightly morph into one of disgust, it reminded you why you couldn’t wait to get away from her when you were barely a teen. You entered the lobby and looked around, the sign on the elevator warned that is was broken as usual, leaving you not even in the least surprised as you headed for the stairs, it was only two floors anyway.

Once you reached the floor you walked down one of the hallways, you could hear muffled voices and music as you walked past some doors; never mind the hour, majority of Neo Citizens almost never slept especially in the lowlife parts of the city. You halted your steps in front of your mother’s door, wavering in your movements only when you pondered how to announce your presence.

You glanced at the lock-pad by the door and decided to try your thumbprint, but the scanner beeped and flashed red. Inhaling a breath to steady yourself, you decided to clean the surface with your sleeve and even rubbed your thumb against the material of your pants and tried again. When that failed you banged your fist on the door; you couldn’t blame her for deleting your print from the system yet it stung you in the chest just a little.

"Who is the fuck is it?” You heard her grumble on the other side of the door after you banged your fist on the hard surface.

“It’s me, open up,” you replied loud and clear. You waited for a whole minute for her to open but as you couldn’t hear anymore sounds from inside, you grew impatient of her behaviour and reached for your holopad inside the pocket of your pants. The device lit up with a logo of your NCT unit on the screen, then hovered it on top of the lock-pad to see a loading circle appear. Was is illegal to hack someone’s lock-pad and enter their home? Yes. Did you care? Not right now.

A series of codes, numbers and letter loaded after a few minutes, considering the cheap quality of the lock-pad it wasn’t hard to bypass with a bare minimum of coding knowledge, and just as you finished tapping your thumbs on your device, the lock beeped and the door opened. You stepped inside of the room and closed the door behind you, the only source of light helping you see came from neon signs from the building across the street.

“I don’t recall telling you that you could come inside,” she said from somewhere inside of the living area that was also a bedroom. She took a swing from her bottle of liquor and spun her wrinkled face around towards you, she appeared way older than she actually was. You could only make out the silhouette of her body as she was facing away from the light, but she could see your stoic expression, the curves of your lineaments painted by pink and blue neons almost made her smile. _Almost_ , she scoffed instead as your face reminded her of _somebody_ she could never forget. 

She heard you sigh as you reached out to tap the wall on your right, looking for the light switch. As soon as you found it, you flipped it up, illuminating your surroundings. Everything was littered with empty bottles of booze, empty containers of instant meals and other trash. “I see nothing’s changed.” A monotone voice left your lips as you readjusted your stance, shifting from one foot to the other and crossed your arms in front of you. “I thought you quit drinking.”

“No calls,” your mother spat out after downing the remaining liquid in the bottle she had been holding in her hands, “no messages…” She stood up from the edge of her unmade bed and stepped closer to you. “There was no reason to keep paying for a second thumbprint in the security system since you barely visit nowadays.”

The pungent scent of alcohol from her mouth reached your nose as she spoke, it made you uncomfortable yet you took a moment to look at her, see the state that she was in. Her hair had seen better days and the dark circles around her eyes emphasised her lack of sleep, meanwhile her clothing was so worn out she could’ve used something new to keep herself warm in that cold and crappy apartment. “I’m not here to talk about our broken mother-daughter relationship,” you told her, licking your lips to give them some moisture as you took another look around the place you once called home. “I need to talk about dad.”

“Hah,” she snickered with her hand in front of her mouth, “your dad? He doesn’t love you! Had he cared about us, we wouldn’t be on Neo Zone in the first place.” She lowered the empty bottle that she had been holding all that time on the floor by the foot of the bed, where other empty bottles sat and she headed towards a mini-fridge to grab another bottle. You could feel your breathing pick up in anger and frustration, she was never one to listen, always first to jab her knife-sharp words into your guts instead of having a normal conversation. “For all I care he could die.”

That was the harsh blow that made you burst like a bomb, out of pure rage you reached for the stupid bottle of beer she’d been holding and flung it across the room. It smashed on the wall as you began screaming at the top of your lungs. “He’s dead! Are you happy now? Is your life better without him, hm?” All she could do out of shock was gape at you. “You were so jealous and blinded that you couldn’t see past your own feelings and you couldn’t accept the love he had for his job! Do you see the shithole that you live in?!” You gestured at all the trash littering the room, your vocal cords hurting from the strain and your eyes started burning again as tears threatened to spill down your cheeks. “Not only did you decide to ruin his life when you ran away, but you ruined mine as well. And now…” Your screaming slowly subsided, letting out a humourless laugh as you brushed your fingers through your hair in an attempt to regain the tiniest bit of control. “The only parent that cared about me is gone…”

“Get out.” She whispered with a quiver in her voice. “You have no right to talk to me like that. I don’t want to see your ungrateful face ever again.”

 _“Ungrateful_.” You repeated the word she called you with, and continued talking much calmer than before. “I’m the one paying for your bills. Do you know where that money comes from?” No, she had no idea… She thought you made money from working as a waitress in the high-end clubs in the richest part of Neo City. You always looked older for your age when you were in your teens, it was only a matter of time before you were forced to abandon your education and found countless illegal waitering jobs, yet the money was never enough and she ended up squandering it all. “You know, I saw a poster one day… Neo Zone’s Galaxy Defence Council was recruiting young people for their NCT program.”

Her eyes widened at the realisation, she was afraid to hear the rest as she began shaking her head in disbelief. “You didn’t…” The very thing she hated the most was he ex-husband’s job as a soldier on Exo Planet, she knew he brought you in for training when you were a child and she was strongly against it, as she didn’t want to see you grow up to be like him.

You nodded without hesitation. “Yes, I had training and you needed the money to get wasted every day of your sad life, so I joined the special forces to become an agent.” You inhaled a long breath as you lowered your head to the ground with your eyes closed. “Like it or not, you need to start looking for a job and pay for your bills yourself.“ You turned around to leave, but before you closed the door after you, you looked at her one last time. “I’m tired of being your ungrateful child.” With that, you headed straight towards the stairs and down to the lobby. Once you were out in the street under the rain that had just begun pouring again, there was Johnny leaning against his yellow motorcycle and waiting for you. “I can’t believe you’re still driving that thing that almost got you killed.”

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?” Johnny quipped as he pushed himself off the vehicle and drew you in an embrace, softly speaking in your ear. “I tracked you down as soon as I heard the news, I didn’t want you to be alone…”

For a moment you felt like saying something about how you were alright and maybe push him away, but a small part of you made you wrap your arms around his back as you buried your face in his chest. As the rain’s force picked up, you let out muffled sobs and Johnny understood that you didn’t need to talk about it, all you needed was comfort.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To my dear readers: _**feedback** is highly encouraged and important!_ as it gives me motivation to write with more passion, knowing that you like what you are reading.

_Location: Exo Planet, Elyxion City_

There was a distant beeping sound gradually disrupting Sehun’s deep slumber, which became closer and grew even more annoying to listen to as he began awakening. He let out a groan, muffled by his lips pressed against the pillow as he was lying on his bare chest. It wasn’t too early in the morning for him to be having such a reaction, no… but Sehun barely managed to get two full hours of sleep after returning to his apartment the previous night. His mind kept him occupied with countless thoughts and he couldn’t even remember any of them in that moment.

“I’m awake,” he mumbled, but the AI did not register his voice, thus the beeping of the alarm continued. “Damn it,” he hissed while turning under the bedsheets. “Shut up, I’m awake!” The beeping immediately ceased and Sehun let out a sigh of relief, seriously contemplating to call in sick and go back to sleep, he wasn’t needed at the base after all, was he?

 _No_ , he had to go, he couldn’t give any more excuses and avoid the unavoidable forever. Fighting through the pounding headache that was starting to bother him from the lack of rest, he slipped out of bed and felt a shiver as his feet touched the cold tiles. With his eyes barely open and still clouded by a haze of sleep, he looked towards the glass wall which began dissolving the black texture and it revealed the world outside.

Sehun squinted his eyes and shielded them with his hands for a moment to allow his retinas to get used to the sudden brightness of early morning. Orange and pink shades of vibrant colors painted the sky at sunrise and he finally rubbed off the haze from his eyes to lazily look back outside. Had he had any piece of garment to shield his most intimate parts he would’ve strode to the living room and gone outside on the balcony to bask in the warm sunshine and summer’s breeze, but he had things to do and places to be, so instead he got up and headed immediately into the adjacent bathroom.

The room lit up immediately as Sehun crossed the threshold, he took his time as he spoke into the air for the AI to set up the temperature of the water in the shower, meanwhile he leisurely searched through one of the cabinets for a clean towel to hang by the shower’s glass door. The glass was starting to get foggy from all the steam building up inside of the shower until Sehun slid the door open and stepped in. He hissed as he thought to himself that perhaps he may have overdone it with the scorching heat as it soaked his black hair and poured down the rest of his body.

Despite the lack of sleep, the warmth of the water and the scent of his body wash were enough to fully wake him up. Sehun thought that he wasn’t in a rush to be anywhere yet so he could take his time to just enjoy a couple more minutes under the stream… Maybe release the tension in his muscles in another way, but his idea didn’t last long as he noticed something white moving across the room, but the vision was unclear because of the steam fogging up the glass. He tapped his index finger on a waterproof digital panel on the wall and the water immediately stopped flowing, allowing him to open the door and step out.

“Oh, good, you’re finally done.” The unmistakable voice of Baekhyun reached Sehun as the man was ruffling his silver strands of hair and readjusting them, while looking at himself in the mirror. The white that Sehun saw were Baekhyun’s clothes. “With how long you’ve been in there I thought you were jerking off or something.”

Sehun grabbed the towel he prepared beforehand and wrapped it around his waist, not even trying to hide his displeasure from having been caught in the act, but he didn’t bring it up, instead he changed the subject of the conversation immediately. “Don’t you know it’s rude to walk into someone’s house uninvited?” He walked past his friend and opened another one of the cabinets for a new towel. “Besides, why are you even here?”

“To make sure you come to the base,” Baekhyun replied as he glanced sideways at the younger man. “You’ve had enough time off. Oh, and Junmyeon said that I’m persistent, more than Jongin anyway.” Baekhyun mused as he checked every angle of his face in the mirror.

"No,” Sehun scoffed as he rubbed the second towel against his head to gather the excess water, “you’re just incredibly annoying and loud.”

“Sehun, dear, those are my charms,” Baekhyun smirked pleased with himself and finally spun around to face Sehun. “Get dressed, we have some things to work on today.” And with that, he left the bathroom.

Sehun was left alone in the bathroom, leaning against the sink and staring back at his own reflection in the mirror. A heavy sigh left his lips as he couldn’t really think of anything at the moment, just that he looked unrested and perhaps frustrated, the slight crease between his brows was only disrupted by droplets of water cascading from his messy fringe.

A howl of his name came from one of the rooms in his apartment, Baekhyun urging his younger friend to hurry up whatever he was doing. “Just give me a minute!” Sehun rolled his eyes as he shouted in response and hastened to get himself dry and dressed.

* * *

_Location: Neo Zone, Neo City_

The ride on Johnny’s motorcycle back to the dorms didn’t take longer than one would expect, as the merciless downpour eventually subsided to a soft drizzle, allowing him to drive faster. Once you finally reached your base’s garage, you both dismounted the motorcycle and allowed yourselves to shake the excess water from your clothes. You removed the yellow helmet and handed it back to him, then just stayed there in the empty parking lot for a few minutes, in utter silence, as you didn’t know what to say to him.

He was supposed to be resting a few more days as per doctor’s orders after he had an accident during one of the missions, yet he came to find you without hesitation after he learned of your father’s passing, knowing that he was breaking official orders to stay put at the NCT’s dorms until further notice. Sure, you were friends with majority of the other members, but Johnny was the closest one of your friends, you were merely acquaintances with people from other units.

With your back pressed against a cold pillar, your whole body felt sore; the lack of sleep and rest was finally sinking into your bones along with the cold left behind from the rain soaking your thin clothes. You didn’t even bother to move behind your ears the wet strands of hair that were sticking onto the sides of your cheeks, the surface of your skin flushed as your body tried to fight against the cold that your mind had shut off a long while ago. You were feeling so empty and emotionally drained that you didn’t even realize you were shivering.

“We should go up,” Johnny broke the silence after a long moment of just observing you. You began nodding your head in a slow manner to convey your agreement, although not moving any other part of your body to actually leave the parking lot, your eyes had been stuck onto some random spot on the ground, distant. Johnny called your name and you finally looked up at him. “The last thing you need right now is to fall sick, and I’m not letting you punish yourself like this.”

You let the back of your head softly rest against the pillar while you looked at him and allowed a small smile to grace your mournful expression. “What would I do without you?“ Your shoulders slumped as you let out a sigh and then pushed yourself off the pillar, heading towards some doors leading to a multitude of elevators. “Thank you, you know…” It was barely above a whisper, but Johnny still heard you and gave a small nod in response. “Although, if the Council find out that you left the compound…” You had a guilty note in your voice.

“What are they gonna do about it?” Johnny mocked as the doors finally opened and you stepped inside the spacious cubicle. “They threatened to suspend us so many times before— and they did,” he chuckled. “Yet they will always need us back on the job.” He had a point there… The amount of available Neo Culture Technology agents for field work is less than thirty people. The recruits are even less considering the risks that come with the job, plus the criteria one has to meet to be admitted into the program in the first place makes it even harder on those who try to join.

You wanted to retort to that statement despite it being true, only partially though. There was an instance where you both were suspended with a warning, after which you rigorously followed the rules because a repeat of that incident would mean going back on the streets. Neither of you could afford such a mistake. “Does Taeyong know or did you just up and leave without—“

“He knows,” Johnny snapped, sounding harsher than he intended, then quickly cleared his throat as he avoided your eyes glancing at him from the side, instead his pupils fixed on the numbers still going up at an incredibly fast pace. “You worry too much.”

“Because I care too much.” Was all you said after a long pause. At last, the elevator came to a halt and the doors to your floor slid open, you strutted out without another word and headed in the opposite direction than Johnny.

As soon as you entered your private quarters, you headed straight for the shower to warm up after soaking in the rain for hours. By the time you dried up and got into bed the sky outside of your bedroom had cleared up and the sun-rays were breaking through the screen on smog, signaling the beginning of a new day, but the moment your head touched the pillow, you had already drifted off to sleep out of exhaustion.

You awoke abruptly because of the incessant beeping of your holopad sitting on the nightstand on your left. Confused about your surroundings from the sleepy haze in your eyes, you tried to rub it away as you body fought back with stiffness, your pupils set on the green numbers signaling the time on the digital clock, and you realized that it was many hours later after you succumbed to slumber. You quickly sat up and picked up the holopad just as it stopped beeping, the person who tried to reach you might have given up on the video-call. Seeing as you were nowhere near presentable at the moment, you resorted to send a text instead to Doyoung, as he had been the one trying to contact you.

 _“Come to forensics”_ , he replied briefly as soon as you asked him what he needed.

Your stomach growled after a good minute of sitting in silence on your bed as you let your brain fully wake up from a dreamless sleep, you took another quick glance at the clock now that your eyelids weren’t feeling so heavy and you sighed knowing it was a little too late for lunch now. You pushed the covers away as you placed your feet on the warm tiles, softly smiling to yourself as you were grateful for the underfloor heating of your quarters, it was one of the few luxuries you allowed yourself to enjoy since you started living in the wealthiest part of Neo City. You were never going to take it for granted; after being forced by your mother to move all of a sudden on Neo Zone from Exo Planet, the first couple of years in the megalopolis were a nightmare as you struggled to earn money for basic necessities such as food and clothes, let alone pay for any sort of education. During the cold season temperatures in the outer districts were much lower and harsher than in the center, it was so bad that at some point in your teen years you resorted to run away from your poor district to find jobs and warmer shelters in the so called _Paradise_ of Neo City.

That’s how you eventually stumbled upon some word-of-mouth recommendation to apply for the Neo Culture Technology program from a woman at the nightclub you worked at. She wasn’t a regular, too much out of place and stuck out like a sore thumb as she wore clothing that was much more appropriate for an office rather than a nightclub setting. She handed you a flyer, saying that she was carrying it around as she was supposed to be a recruiter, although she did not specify the details. You barely glanced at it back then and then simply tucked it inside of your work uniform, thinking of throwing it away later without her knowing and just smiled at her. At the end of your full-time shift you were finally able to leave, back on the streets wondering where you were going to spend the night as you came across a poster, which caught your attention immediately and you remembered the flyer sitting in the pocket of your pants. Earlier while changing, you couldn’t bring yourself to throw it away for some reason.

As you currently munched on some protein bar you found in your kitchen cabinets, dressed for work in a black NCT uniform and ready to walk out the door, you reminisced on how you were driven to become someone who wanted to stop feeling so powerless and miserable all the time. The image of that poster was burned in your memory like a permanent stamp on your skin. Confessing to your mother the truth the previous night made all the memories flood back like water escaping from a broken dam, which usually you would suppress but now you were feeling relieved. It seemed as if your father’s death somehow snapped an urge inside of you and, at last, led you to sever the toxic relationship you had with your mother. You figured that it would’ve been better to make peace with yourself about your decision before guilt started working its way in your heart out of pity for the woman. She was supposed to take care of you, not the other way around.

Your jaw tensed as the elevator started going down to the forensics floor, no matter how long you’ve been living in the building you could never get used to the sudden drop in your stomach. It took a couple of minutes to arrive on the desired floor, then without wasting any more time you headed straight for the main laboratory. The automated sliding-doors and walls were made out of thin glass so anybody could see who was working on the inside, yet the material was so hard they were practically bulletproof.

“What do you have for me, Doyoung?” The man spun around from one of the computers to look at you.

“I’ve been calling you all afternoon,” his tone was practically scolding you as if he were an older brother, when in reality he was just a couple of days older than you.

“Yeah…” You nodded slowly while biting softly into your bottom lip, expression showing that you were in deep thought. “I slept in after last night’s mission. Sorry.” It appeared that he was not aware of your loss, and you had no intention of bringing it up. Perhaps Taeyong decided it was best to keep it for himself after he informed Johnny. “Anyway,” you gestured with your head towards the computer he was working on. “What can you tell me about the three men we brought in?”

He inhaled a long breath before replying with disappointment laced in his tone. “You would think I’d have all the answers.” Doyoung was an excellent field agent, but he was an even better physician and forensic pathologist, no doubt one of the smartest people working as a Neo Culture Tech. The Council once described him as one of the most valuable resources among NCT recruits, his brain would have been wasted to not train him in the medical field as well. The other member have just some basic first aid knowledge. “Sadly, the only thing we concluded was that the men were Neo Citizens. Not much is known about them except that they were some local gangsters in Mad City’s district, except…”

His words trailed off as he was thinking about something, that brain of his coming up with theories and connections. You raised you brows and prompted him to continue. “Except?”

He motioned for you to follow him across the spacious office, to stand in front of a long holographic table. “On,” he commanded and the image that appeared was that of the body of one of the men you fought last night. “See, they were Neo Citizens, but this is… _bizarre_.” He swayed his hands above the surface and image zoomed in until it showed the inside of the mouth, Doyoung raised his hand with his thumb and index fingers closed then slowly parted them to get a more accurate view of a wisdom tooth on the upper left side.

At first it appeared normal but then you gasped softly. “It’s cracked.” You reached with your right hand to spin the three-dimensional tooth and noticed that the crack almost looked normal, yet it appeared to have split down the middle just recently.

“Mm-hmm,” your colleague interjected. “And it’s hollow inside, so we know that the poison was stored in there before the tooth broke.” Doyoung returned to his computer and you followed him as he picked up a tablet and handed it to you, a report with his research was neatly compiled into an easy to read and understand layout. Only he would be so specific about such a detail… “It is not uncommon for criminals to store toxins in their mouth, between their teeth to escape arrest, but even then it might take about twenty minutes for the symptoms of poisoning to start showing— and this is me talking about the worst case scenario, considering that with technology we possess, we have a cure for it.“ Doyoung let out a humourless chuckle as he continued to explain to you what seemed to be so different about this specific case, he sounded frustrated. “You see, I was not able to identify the substance of the poison,” he finally informed you as you read through the forensics report. “It is most likely from a planet we haven’t come into contact with as there’s no match from the Galactic Toxins Servers.”

You gaped at him incredulous as you lowered the tablet to your side. “You’re telling me we had no single match out of hundreds of planets data gathered on one server?” You shook your head in disbelief.

“I’m sorry,” Doyoung replied apologetic, yet he still showed you a comforting smile in hopes of cheering you up. “We’re running more tests and still double-checking with the list we have, just in case we missed something. All we know is that the symptoms are nearly instantaneous. The moment the toxin was ingested it caused the victims to go into immediate paralysis by interrupting the transmission of neural signals from nerves to muscles, followed by seizures and respiratory failure.”

You stared at him for a long moment after he finished explaining and clicked the tip of your tongue against your teeth.You weren’t sure whether your headache was caused by irregular sleeping schedules, frustration, or lack of knowledge. Although, you were sure it was a little more complicated than his short explanation, but knowing Doyoung, he oversimplified the whole thing just so you could understand the gist of it. “That sounds a lot like a poison on steroids to me.”

There was no way they could miss anything, Neo Zone’s technology was almost as advanced as the one on Exo Planet, you thought. You took another look at him and narrowed your eyes as you studied his expression, there was something he wasn’t telling you. “Out with it, I know you’re ever the optimistic guy, but we need something to work with here.”

Doyoung sighed as he gave in to your words. “Well, we were thinking that if the toxin doesn’t match with known ones it could be because it comes from one of the planets we haven’t come in contact with... Which expands our options to far too many planets, the research would be time consuming and very pointless, not to mention the waste of resources.”

You nodded understanding where that conversation was going. “Back to square one looking for a needle in a haystack.” You replied defeated as he gave a single nod and pursed his lips together in agreement.

Your holopad began buzzing with life so you returned the tablet to Doyoung and pulled out the other device from a pocket in your cargo pants, answering the call on speaker. “Hey, Taeyong, I’m in forensics with Doyoung.”

“ _I got the report earlier_ ,” he sounded as if he was walking somewhere in the building. “ _We’ll discuss the details another time. If you’re ready to depart, Jaehyun and I will meet you at the NCT landing port._ ” Your heart skipped a beat at his words and your eyes widened briefly, Doyoung just gave you a confused look. “ _The Council has allowed us to depart for Exo Planet._ ”

* * *

_Location: Exo Planet, Elyxion City_

Sehun was crouched with laboured breathing, left knee touching the floor while he was leaning with his right forearm on his other bent knee. Him and Chanyeol had been testing Sehun’s endurance after he got injured during their last mission, he had been thankfully healed by Yixing, yet he still needed to rest for at least a week before resuming any activities.

They’ve been at it the whole morning, the training room was a complete mess, floor and walls that turned black in certain spots covered by soot. The once white room was a controlled environment at the to allow the members to exercise their psychokinetic prowess. Junmyeon especially insisted that Chanyeol help Sehun develop a new method at repelling fire, despite his wind powers supplying oxygen for the combustion process. To put it out into simpler terms, the duo was deadlier when they worked together with their powers combined.

“You know…” Chanyeol groaned as he patted a few burning spots on his grey fitted clothes to put out the flames, some holes here and there showed his skin underneath the fabric completely unscathed, yet covered in black ashes. “I could do this all day, but we both know you can’t master holding off flames in one day without eventually getting burned yourself, again.” He murmured the last part. There was a deep crease of concern between his eyebrows as he kept his eyes trained on his partner.

“Yeah, I know.” Sehun retorted a bit annoyed and stood up to his full height. He rubbed the sleeve of his loose sweater on his forehead to get rid of the beads of sweat, many hours later from when he first came in with Baekhyun still wondering what was going through Junmyeon’s mind when he suggested this type of training. He could try to create a barrier pushing in the opposite direction as many times as he could, yet the flames would still become harsher and hotter. Sehun’s training clothes had patches on them which matched Chanyeol’s, except he was wearing a fire resistant and skintight sweatshirt underneath, specifically engineered to withstand the fire user’s destructive ability, yet the fabric had reached its limit.

“Ugh, come on dude!” Chanyeol whined as Sehun readied himself again, all of his senses on alert. “I’m starving, let’s go eat.”

“One more time,” Sehun pouted pleadingly at the other man, then went on to insist. “One more time and then we can go take a break and have some lunch.”

Chanyeol run his hands through his soft pink locks in annoyance and then pointed a finger at the younger man. “You’re gonna regret this.” A blink of an eye and all of a sudden a spark appeared out of nowhere, progressively turning into much bigger flames that separated the two men. The flames burst into a much larger fire that then leaped in Sehun’s direction, this attack was stronger than all the previous ones.

The black haired man reacted immediately by raising both his arms with the palms of his hands towards the heat and created a gust of wind out to push the flames away from him. Again, the heat was starting to reach him and the attempt was going to fail, but he wasn’t going to give up, instead he came up with a quick tactic before his wind rebounded in his direction under the pressure of the fire. Sehun quickly changed trajectory of the air flow and, with all the strength he had left, he pushed the flames towards the ceiling and spread out on the whole surface.

Chanyeol gaped in awe for a short moment until alarms began blaring all throughout the compound, having been activated by the AI reacting to the men’s powers and flagged it as imminent danger. The fire prevention system set off the few functioning sprinkles, trying to drown out the flames as much as it could despite having been damaged, and in the process ended up soaking wet both men standing at the center of the training grounds.

They looked at each other, wet hair sticking to their foreheads and clothes getting drenched as water continued cascading from the ceiling. Sehun raised his eyebrows in a questioning look while Chanyeol glared at him. “What? Looks like it worked.”

“What are you two idiots doing?!” An angry voice reached their ears at the top of the blaring alarm until they turned to face the source. Minseok was standing in the doorway with Jongin, water pooling at their feet until the sprinklers shut off, having extinguished the fire. The alarm kept blaring for a couple of seconds longer until it stopped as well, leaving behind an uncomfortable buzzing in their ears. “Are you trying to kill us all?”

Jongin on the other hand had a smug grin on his face, the whole ordeal amused him more than it should have, though he tried to stifle the laugh that was so desperately trying to leave his lips as his shoulders shook softly. He bit his bottom lip the moment he noticed Minseok giving him a side eye and he stiffened. He cleared his throat and called out to the other two guys. “You should go and get changed, we’ll go to Junmyeon’s office.” He put a hand on Minseok’s shoulder and they both disappeared into thin air.

Sehun rolled his eyes and headed with Chanyeol to get changed into some dry clothes. “What about the visitors we were supposed to have?” He finally asked something that had been on his mind since the previous night. Jongin told him someone was going to come by the compound, but he wasn’t given any further details.

As they made their way out of the training grounds and across a long hallway connecting them to the main building, it felt as if Chanyeol was holding back onto something. “Baekhyun was working during the past week in the offices to track down Eran’s closest family members,” he admitted at last as they took their time getting dressed in a changing room after showering.

Eran had been one of the executives taking care of the Exo Guardians for as long as Chanyeol could remember, but being an executive came with its own risks as they also engaged in missions and put their lives on the line as additional support in enemy territories. Since Sehun witnessed first hand the explosion that killed the man and suffered painful injuries himself in an attempt to save him, he felt as if he was responsible for what had happened. Chanyeol knew that it was traumatic, to say the least, and he didn’t know how to approach the conversation so as to not remind the younger man of that terrible day.

“His daughter?” Sehun mumbled the question downcast, discarding the towel he used to dry his hair in a hamper by the lockers.

Chanyeol brushed back the faded pink of his damp hair with his fingers, sighing out loud. “Yeah, I think she’s here.” There was a pause as Sehun whipped his head to stare at him, asking him where could she be. “Junmyeon said they were supposed to arrive—“ He shrugged not really remembering the time, but younger man didn’t wait any second more as he headed straight for the automatic sliding doors.

They were a couple of levels below the ground, but the entire compound was built like a glass dome with geometrical edges that resembled that of a beehive, the training grounds were right in the middle, almost like a building inside of another building. The dome provided so much natural lighting that the artificial lights were off during the day. When Sehun stepped out in the enclosed courtyard, he let his eyes wander upwards towards the floor where Junmyeon’s office was located. There was someone dressed in black leaning against the glass balustrade, he couldn’t tell if they were looking down at him, but their attention was quickly driven to other two figures — dressed in black as well — motioning for the person to follow them. Sehun kept his eyes on them until they disappeared inside another hallway.

“Dude, what’s gotten into you?” Chanyeol hissed when he reached him and gave him a punch on the shoulder, the black haired man barely reacting to the sting. They walked ahead to the elevator and got inside. “What were you gonna do if you saw her?” The taller man became serious all of a sudden.

“Nothing.” He pursed his lips together for a moment as he looked around the spacious cubicle as if he needed something to distract himself with. “Look, I don’t even know her. Eran mentioned her a bunch of times in the past when I was younger, but he was very reserved on the topic and never spoke of his family.” Chanyeol nodded in agreement, realizing that they knew little to nothing about his life outside of Exo, despite having known the man for more than a decade. “It’s not like I’m gonna walk right up to her and—“

He never got to finish the sentence as the doors to the elevator opened and the pair was met with three pairs of eyes, in the middle was a girl that resembled a man he once knew.

* * *

_Location: Exo Planet, Elyxion City_

The view from the spacecraft was that of a planet much different from Neo Zone. You had been on a few more planets with your members, all missions carried out under the orders of the NCT Council, but Taeyong and Jaehyun were seeing Exo Planet with their own eyes for the very first time in their life. You were approaching day lit side of the planet, Jaehyun slowing down the thrusters as he was taking a moment to just look at what was before him, same with Taeyong.

“I read somewhere how clean the air is on the planet, but I didn’t expect to be able to see the surface so clearly from space.” Taeyong admitted almost in awe.

“Honestly,” You started as you were sat in the cockpit with them, “I don’t even know what clean air smells like after living on Neo Zone… But I’m pretty sure our lungs will send us a thank you card.” Your words made Jaehyun laugh and shake his head while he begun the ship’s descent on the planet.

An endless rock desert came into view with a tiny dot up north, Elyxion City. The digital panel at the center of the flight deck lit up with an incoming transmission as you traveled above the land, Taeyong was quick to accept it. “ _This is Elyxion City’s Spacecraft Control Tower. State your spacecrafts’s code and identify yourselves._ ”

Taeyong leaned forward and tapped on the screen to reply. “Spacecraft NZ-NCT-23. I’m NCT 127’s leader, Taeyong, on board with agent Jaeyung and agent Y/N. We have business with Suho at the Dome.” When he finished announcing your arrival, the blond leaned back in his seat and took a glance over his shoulder at you.

You were tense, it was the first time in years — which felt like an eternity— that you were about to set foot on your home planet. Yet you found your body stiffen with dread, your fists clenched around the ends of the armrests and your nails started digging into the hard surface until your knuckles turned white from the strain. Closing your eyes, you shook your head softly to get a grip on yourself. You didn’t want to do it, but they asked you to come meet Exo’s leader so he could offer you his condolences and talk about your father.

“Just say it and we can go right back,” Taeyong spoke to you in a calm and reassuring voice, he could clearly see it on your face that you were regretting your decision to come.

Jaehyun furrowed his brows as he eyed your leader with shared concern. “Johnny said that this was a bad idea.”

“It wasn’t for him to decide,” Taeyong retorted, recalling that he had to forbid him to leave his room again unless he wanted to spend the rest of his days in the archives of the Neo Culture Tech’s building, printing physical copies of thousands of reports and other things in between. Bye-bye field missions.

“ _Landing permission granted._ ” Came the sudden reply from the Spacecraft Control Tower, recalling your attention. “ _Please, follow the coordinates and have a safe landing._ ” A red dot appeared on the screen with a map to the Dome.

You sighed and released your tight grip from the armrests. “I’m fine, let’s get it over with.”

Jaehyun sped up and followed the coordinated to reach your destination. “I always thought Exo Planet’s capital would be surrounded by greenery, but all I’ve seen so far is just rock desert.”

It was true that Elyxion City was surrounded by literally nothing, but it hasn’t always been like that. When you were a child and still went to school, it was said that the planet had suffered a long period of drought several hundreds of years before, flora and fauna were perishing on one side of the planet, but despite having an advanced technology, they could not determine the cause for such a drastic change. So, you told him just that. “The other side of the planet should be doing somewhat better than this. Some claim that the lands divided by the ocean helped prevent the same fate on the other lands.”

“Is that why the estimated population is low?” Taeyong asked out of curiosity as well. You were all starting to see the capital come into view, closer by the second.

“Hmm, I guess.” You pondered now, not being used to this kind of interest towards your planet of origins. “Oftentimes Aeris migrate to other planets to find some other type of employment. There is not really a poverty line when it comes to Exo Planet, it’s just…” You trailed off as the white buildings of the city were finally below your spacecraft. “Complicated,” you breathed out.

The city was just how you remembered it. White buildings following organic shapes with tall walls and windows that were made out of UV resistant glass. There were so many open spaces and public areas with dots of greenery left and right, almost merging with the architecture. Further away from the center of the city, you came into view with a much wider area obviously meant as a landing port, in its proximity rose from the ground the Dome; encased in thick metal and concrete supports with beehive shaped glass, it was surrounded by more greenery.

You didn’t remember the place being so lively with flora when you left the planet, but didn’t give it further thought as you finally stepped out of the spacecraft after you landed. You were welcomed by six soldiers dressed in grey and white military uniforms, meanwhile a man with fiery red hair stood in the middle, waiting for you.

“Welcome, I’m Suho, leader of Exo.” He had a kind smile on his features, very welcoming, but the color of his hair for some reason made him look too out of place.

Taeyong took notice of the soldiers accompanying him and quite reluctantly nodded as he introduced himself. “I’m NCT 127’s leader, Taeyong. These are Jaehyun and Y/N.” Suho’s pupils moved towards me and his smile faltered in sadness when he met my gaze, but his attention was brought back to Taeyong and he asked about the men accompanying the Exo leader. “I didn’t expect so many soldiers to greet us on our arrival.”

“Don’t worry, this is standard procedure whenever we have visitors from other planets.” The red haired man explained as he stepped forwards to hand Taeyong a tablet. “We have to make sure you’re healthy before we let you inside of the compound.”

Your leader took a moment to read through the terms on the tablet and then spoke to you and Jaehyun. “It’s a simple blood test and temperature check. Are you fine with this?” Both of you nodded silently and then he agreed. Three soldiers broke line and stepped each in front of you, first checking your body temperature and then they rested the tip of one of your fingers against the same device, but this time it pricked the skin to draw a drop of blood.

“Did you have a pandemic case in the past?” Jaehyun asked, more so to gather information about the reasoning behind the procedure than out of curiosity.

“Something like that,” Suho answered briefly. “We would like to not repeat any mistakes.” After the short procedure, the soldiers gave you the clear and you all finally were able to head inside of the Dome.

The inside was just as grand as the view from the outside, one would not have possible thought that this was a military base of operations… Perhaps a museum of some sort. The temperature outside was quite hot compared to the inside. The platform went all around in a circle, with glass balustrades protecting people from dropping below to an enclosed courtyard decorated with small trees and flowers. _Those were definitely not there before_ , you thought as you let your eyes travel towards the training center standing tall in the middle, yet still low enough that it didn’t block any view from the surroundings.

You couldn’t help yourself and had to ask. “Where do all those flowers come from? They weren’t there before.”

“Ah, so you remember your time here.” Suho turned to look at you and smiled politely when he replied to your question. “D.O likes growing trees and flowers, he says they make any place look more welcoming.” You noted the usage of codenames among the guardians, but if your memory served you right, Suho’s real name was Junmyeon. You couldn’t remember D.O’s real name, but you guessed he was the earth user… No wonder there was so much greenery around now. “Through here…” Junmyeon turned right towards a glass door, which slid open the moment he stepped close to it.

You followed him inside, almost gasping when your eyes saw the image of a familiar man on the wall, but the hologram was quickly interrupted by Suho from being displayed so carelessly to some strangers. You exchanged a quick side glance with Taeyong and Jaehyun, one common thought: _Ronan_. Exo knew something about him, the man which all NCT units were after and almost came close to catching him before he managed to escape right under your noses.

“First of all,” Suho started after rounding his work desk and looking directly at you. “I would like to offer my deepest condolences, Y/N. Eran was a great man, I know you two were close.”

 _Not particularly_ , you retorted mentally and just responded with a small nod. “What happened to him?” You asked the burning question that had been bothering you since hearing about his death.

The red haired man sucked in some air as he tilted his head in thought. “Well, the details of the mission are confidential, but it happened a week ago on the field. The enemy targeted our transport spacecraft while Eran was on board when the missile fired.” He made a short pause to make sure you were still listening to him, although you had lowered your eyes to a random spot on the floor, trying to control the anger that was building inside of you. “By the time we realized what was happening it was already too late.”

You let out an incredulous scoff at his words, having expected to hear something like that. Both Taeyong and Jaehyun turned their heads in your direction, confused by your reaction until they saw your tears, silently crying without so much of a whimper. You looked up at the ceiling exhaling a long breath. “A whole squad of men with superhuman abilities and no one was able to save their executive.” The room fell silent after those words left your lips. You knew the risks of his job, the same way you knew the risks of your job. It could happen at any time, somebody could die while working on the field. Yet you could not wrap your head around it: a man with no superhuman abilities lost his life while being surrounded by men who had psychokinetic powers beyond human comprehension.

“I’m sorry... He wanted you to have this,” Suho decided to break the silence after a long moment of hesitation, reaching for a small metal container on the desk. You approached him while taking a deep breath to calm your bubbling anger and frustration, then dried your tears quickly with your fingers. You took the slightly rounded contained from his hand and opened it to empty its content in your left hand. He left you only two objects, an Exolite crystal you used to carry around your neck when you were younger, but the color had turned to white after you left the planet for Neo City, and the second objects appeared to be a cylinder apartment key. Suho continued talking to you about the thin key in your hand. “Eran was hoping you would move back here so he got you an apartment in the city, if not permanently, just for visits.”

You were at a loss for words, there was nothing you could say to make yourself feel better, so you just put away the objects in the metal container and slipped it in one of the pockets of your black pants. “Is that all?” All you wanted to do was get off this planet and go back home. Your head started throbbing with a painful headache and the tone in your voice turned colder than before. “If you’re not going to give me more details about who killed my father then we shall take our leave.”

Suho’s lips parted slightly, but before he could say anything there was a slight shake that made the floor under your boots tremble, followed by an immediate emergency alarm resounding throughout the whole dome. The lot of you faced the tall window-wall and noticed that all the personnel froze in confusion as well, which meant that this was pretty uncommon. You felt a slight change in the air around you and whipped your head back towards the Exo leader only to realize there was a new man inside of the office, but you had no idea where he could have possibly come from.

Soon enough, Taeyong and Jaehyun’s attention were drawn to him, startled, as they heard Suho give him orders. “Kai, get Xiumin and go to the training grounds. I think Chanyeol and Sehun may have set the building on fire.”

“On it,” the blue haired man didn’t even hesitate before disappearing as fast as he had appeared, meanwhile Suho focused on a tablet that was resting on top of his desk, among other clutter.

“Y/N,” Taeyong called you by your name, taking advantage of the alarm to speak to you. “We should ask about Ronan.”

“Won’t they get suspicious?” Jaehyun questioned with doubt. “He might lie.”

At last the loud alarm was cut off, making you groan in annoyance as it seemed to make your throbbing headache worse than before. “It seems your problem was solved.” You sighed while crossing your arms in front of you.

Suho shrugged. “Yes, it doesn’t happen often, though.” Just as you exchanged a brief look with your leader to make his move, two people appeared in the room. One was Kai, and the other man was… “Xiumin, everything all right?”

“Yes, but those two idiots set the training grounds on fire and then flooded it.” This new man scoffed in annoyance as he ignored for a good moment your presence in the office. The way they acted was starting to get on your nerves, barely acknowledging you was quite disrespectful, had they behaved in such a way at an NCT meeting, they would have been dismissed for disciplinary measures and suspended from service until further notice.

You turned on your heels as you lowered your arms to your sides, referring to your leader in a low tone. “If you have any questions to ask, do it. I’ll be waiting outside until you’re done.” He nodded at you and only then you left without another word, questioning looks following your retreating form. You walked up to the glass balustrade and leaned your forearms against it.

They were hiding things from you about your father’s death, you knew it and your guts almost never betrayed you, it hurt so much and you couldn’t understand why you were feeling everything all over again at once like yesterday. There were no more tears to spill, the last ones escaped your eyes in that office, but now all you needed were answers. A picture of Ronan must have been a coincidence, he was wanted on more than one planet, but Taeyong wanted to ask anyway just in case you could get a possible new lead to follow. You groaned internally, that wasn’t going to happen, Exo were just going to keep lying.

Your father never spoke to your about his job as an executive, you just remember that he was a very passionate man about it, which led him to instill in you the same passion and would have succeeded had your mother not taken you away from him. Executives were a vital part for the Exo guardians, they helped guide them through difficult times and decisions, they trained them to be excellent fighters and protectors of the planet. Maybe you would have known him better had you stayed and learned why it was so damn important for him to pick his job first. Maybe you would have understood, but in reality you didn’t. Yours was just a job, sure you felt like NCT had become your family, yet there was something missing… You thought about your father and that all you got from him were a once a year visits, somehow he knew where to find you and you were happy about it.

Now you felt like an orphan with an apartment you didn’t want in inheritance, perhaps because coming back on Exo Planet never crossed your mind after a few years in Neo City. You grew to love where you were living, your job, your friends. That was a standard of normalcy which made you feel safe away from the toxic presence of your mother in your life. Your mind was running wild with such thoughts and all you could do to slow it down was fix your attention on something physical and present at the moment, so you reached for the metal container you received from Suho. You retracted the necklace from inside and took a good look at the Exolite crystal. When on Exo Planet, they have a variety of colors that glow because of the influence of the Tree of Life and the moons in the sky. Once you take it far away from its planet of origin, the crystal loses its ability to glow and progressively loses the color that defines it.

There, as you thought about the crystal, you felt the same thing about yourself, except you didn’t know what defined you as a person anymore. You remember giving the crystal to Eran the previous year, you promised to come visit him, but you can’t recall if your words were sincere back then. You let out a sigh and clasped the chain around your neck, tucking it along with the pendant under your shirt. You leaned back forward against the balustrade and looked down at the courtyard, squinting your eyes as you noticed a black haired man gazing up at you. It appeared as if he had come from the training grounds, then he must’ve been one of the guys who set off the emergency alarm.

“Y/N, are you alright?” Jaehyun’s voice caused you to tear your eyes away from the man below.

“I’ve been better.” You replied in all honesty. “Any information about Ronan?”

Taeyong crossed his arms and clenched his jaw as he was thinking about it, his eyes were distant for a moment. “They know him as a _collector_. It seems as if he operates the same way everywhere he goes.” Collector? You let that word resonate in your mind. A tilt of the head and you both followed Taeyong towards the way you came from. “It means that whoever he is working for, he is just the guy who picks up the shipments and delivers them safely every six months or so.”

You all stopped in front of an elevator to take you to the exit floor. “So when we went after him, it was his routine job, except he completely evaded us.” Jaehyun murmured as some people walked past us. You let your eyes wander for a fraction of a second and noticed how your black uniforms stuck out like a sore thumb in contrast to all the whites, light greys and greens.

“What about the poison?” You asked absentmindedly, catching them off guard, and they gave you a puzzled look. “Doyoung said the poison was out of the ordinary.” You explained. “The only way those Neo Citizens could get their hands on something so lethal must be through the people Ronan is working with. It would explain the kill switch.”

“We can’t rule anything out, but it looks like it might be some planet we have not come in contact with, like he suggested.” That was Taeyong’s final theory as the doors to the elevator slid open and before you now stood two men, one of which you recognized as the guy who had been staring at you earlier from the enclosed courtyard.

His eyes fixed on you the same way the other man’s expression turned into surprise once he saw you, but you didn’t give it too much weight since you knew you looked totally out of place, dressed as you were, so you stepped aside to make room for them to quickly walk out and past you without a word.

“We need to catch that bastard.” Was all you said before the doors closed.

**Author's Note:**

> ♡ Please, don't be afraid to talk to me, I encourage you to do so ♡ Feedback is always appreciated so comment what is going through your mind! :)
> 
> !! ATTENTION !!
> 
>  _ **Damaged**_ is an ongoing series started on Tumblr under the username of [**sweetjekyll**](https://sweetjekyll.tumblr.com/), for more information about the updates I recommend you follow the blog. Direct link to the series masterlist is [**HERE**](https://sweetjekyll.tumblr.com/post/619388262369443840/damaged-masterlistpairing-oh-sehun-x)


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